


A New Princess

by Archaeologyfiend



Series: From a Certain Point of View [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Politics, At least he thinks he is, Bail in denial, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, OC, Or Bail, This AU is not kind to the Jei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 12:32:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17488109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archaeologyfiend/pseuds/Archaeologyfiend
Summary: Leia Organa attends a party and meets a certain Senator or two. A new princess is appointed.OrPalpatine thinks he's punishing Vader, Leia is confused and Bail is deep in denial about his adoptive daughter.





	A New Princess

**Author's Note:**

> It's probably going to be a while between the next update- I have a bunch of stuff to do. But this was finished and taking up space on my elderly and ailing computer, so please enjoy!

Leia Organa was bored. Not just mind-numbingly bored either, like many of the Senate sessions were, but bored of the drivel that left the other Senators mouths, bored of the life of a Senator and bored of the many superfluous parties the Emperor liked to hold. This party was no different, although there was something… strange in the air. The Emperor was looking particularly malicious tonight, his dreaded pet Vader at his side as always.

Truth be told, Leia got the feeling Vader was equally bored.

Lapdog, Vader might be, but he was a commander. He fought with the Imperial Navy and she had heard that he was a master Sith, one of the Force users who were Dark, who fought against the legendary Jedi. Her father had warned her copious times about him, told her to stay as far away from him as possible. So far, she had been successful, giving him a wide berth whenever they ended up in the same corridors. She had had a total of one conversation with him and it had been terrifying. The vocoder and that terrible breathing were a fearsome combination, not to mention the constant icy cold feeling that surrounded him. She couldn’t blame her father from shielding her from him when she was younger.

Off to one side, she spotted Senator Naberrie, a different one from before. Bail Organa had once tried to recruit the Naberries into the Rebellion- apparently Pooja Nabberie’s aunt had been Senator Amidala- but had been rejected outright. But that was by her mother, Sola Naberrie: perhaps her daughter would be more amenable. Tagging along with the twenty-eight-year-old was a small eleven-year-old girl, reportedly her sister, although she had heard several cruel whispers that she was actually _her_ daughter, and the family were simply trying to cover it up. Leia disagreed- Milè Naberrie was far too similar to her sister for them not to share the same parents. Besides, one didn’t just believe rumours.

Steeling herself, Leia wandered casually towards them, watching the child carefully. She glanced fearfully around her, brown eyes wide and every so often glancing up towards the dais. Towards Vader. No doubt, she had heard the horror stories that followed the man around. Leia painted what she hoped was a friendly smile on her face, pulling all of her training as a Senator to the fore and stepped right up next to the siblings, glass at the ready.

“Hello Senator Naberrie,” she said pleasantly. “I take it this is your sister?” Pooja gave her a restrained smile, something slightly off in her face.

“Yes, this is Milè, Senator Organa.” Nothing else, no more information. Leia paused, trying to gauge how strongly she ought to come on to this woman. Politics came easier to her father, but Leia knew how to manipulate a person almost as well- her father said she just needed more practice. So, she gave the girl a soft smile, deciding to turn her attention towards family. The Naberries were big on that she had heard.

“Hello there, Milè,” she said, holding out a hand for the girl to take, tone friendly. “I’m Leia Organa. My father was friends with your aunt.” Pooja stiffened as Milè took her hand gingerly. Perhaps mentioning Senator Amidala had been a mistake but Leia bulled ahead anyway. “She was a great inspiration to me.”

“Aunt Padme was kind,” Milè murmured softly. “That’s what mama said.”

“Yes, she was,” Pooja said quietly, sorrow in her voice. Leia nodded, keeping her face soft.

“It was such a great loss. Your aunt was a brilliant woman.” Pooja gave her a tight smile, tugging her sister closer to her.

“Yes, I’m sure her husband would agree with you. Sadly, he was forgotten in all the turmoil,” Pooja said almost acidly. Leia blinked, staring at her.

“Husband?” she asked in surprise, not able to hide it. “I… I didn’t know she was married.” Her father had never mentioned it. Wouldn’t he have known, if they were such good friends? Bail had always made it sound like they were always on the same page, speaking about Senator Amidala in near reverent tones. Pooja shrugged, her head tilted upwards.

“Well, they never flaunted it. There would have been a great upheaval if they had. After all, even in the days of the Republic, it was never the done thing for a Senator to marry a poor ex-slave.” Leia’s breath caught in her throat, wondering why she was privileged to learn this information. She could imagine the rumours though- had someone found out, they would be all around the Senate and Senator Amidala may have lost some of her political clout. But it was also… romantic in a way, that she had married a man she loved without thinking twice about it. She gave Pooja a reassuring smile, trying to convey that she didn’t think less of her aunt for that, but Pooja only gave her a calculating look, before turning to face the Emperor as he stood, gnarled hands clapping together to bring everyone’s attention to him. The room fell silent near instantly, the only sound the constant rasp of breathing from Vader.

“Senators… Lord, Ladies, Friends,” the Emperor started, voice oily and thick with fake niceties. “We are gathered here to celebrate a new era within the Empire. It has come to my attention that many of you are… _concerned_ for your Emperor’s health.” Leia stiffened at the sadistic tone that entered his tone. Had they been found out? Did he know the Rebellion was planning his execution, the end of this dreadful Empire? That they were trying to reinstate the Republic, democracy? She could almost sense him cackling to himself. “To ease your worries, I have decided to choose and train an heir. It is sad to say that I am too old and Lord Vader too frail to sire any heirs ourselves.” _Frail_ was the last word Leia would use to describe Vader, but from the expression on Pooja’s face, she got the distinct impression that she thought it an insult. Well, Leia could see it was an insult, but far more interesting to her was that Vader was _not_ Palpatine’s heir as they had assumed. So, who would he choose? “There is, however, a member of our illustrious family available and willing to learn. So, I ask from now on, you welcome and respect our new Imperial Crown Princess, Milè Naberrie!” A smattering of shocked applause as the girl was grabbed from her sister’s hold by pristine robed Red Guards and roughly placed in front of the Emperor. A single, black gloved hand rested on her shoulder, keeping the terrified girl there. Palpatine’s scarred and wrinkled face was alight with a cruel glee.

Leia swallowed, turning to look at the grim expression on Pooja’s face. She didn’t look horrified, or even surprised as one might think, but resigned. Her face was completely and utterly blank, watching her sister in the claws of the Emperor’s loyal dog as the rest applauded the Emperor’s decision. She could hear the whispers already. How good it was, that the Emperor had chosen her so young, that she would be taught by the best in the army, that as a local Nabooian, she would no doubt put their best interests at heart, just like her aunt. It made Leia sick to think that people would twist Senator Amidala’s memory like this.

“Why would he appoint your sister as his heir?” Leia asked, hiding her disgust as best she could behind curiosity. To think, she had been trying to recruit them _against_ the Emperor. Pooja turned to face her, expression just as blank as before.

“Punishment,” she said simply, dipping her head. “We have not been truly loyal to His Majesty and he feels that giving the shade of his daughter to Vader is fitting punishment to us all.” With that she swept away, and Leia froze, staring at the empty spot. _Punishment._ Vader’s _daughter_. The great hulking mechanical behemoth had _children_? Leia shuddered at whatever poor unfortunate woman had been forced to bear heirs to such a man as Vader. Most likely dead now, just like the children it sounded like. But what did Vader care other than the fact that they were no longer around to be a thorn in their side? Perhaps that was why it was announced now, that they had been killed and the Emperor had no one to take over from him. As if he would let them.

But then… Pooja had almost made it sound like this was punishment for _Vader_ too. She knew that he was increasingly getting angrier the more the Rebellion escaped him. Hera had reported how they had only narrowly escaped him several times and surely his master was not happy about that. But this… how was this a punishment? Describing Milè as a shade almost made it sound like she _looked_ like Vader’s daughter but that could have covered any of the Naberries. Why this little girl in particular? Because she was young? Because she wasn’t old enough to have been influenced by her parents yet? It was good to know that the Naberries were not loyal to the Empire, but now they were ever more closely tied to it. And now it made their job all the harder. The Rebellion could never justify the killing of a child, but so long as she was sanctioned by the Emperor as his heir, then once he died, the Empire and the Alliance would be split. Some would want to work with the new tiny Empress and just get rid of her hulking guard, for that could only be what Vader would become to her if he didn’t just try to kill her himself, others would just attempt to wipe them all out. And that the Emperor had insinuated a relationship to the Naberrie’s… it would be argued that they would _all_ need to be killed.

She would need to talk to her father about this.

* * *

Bail Organa’s horror was palpable through the commlink, even as far removed from him as she was. Leia watched as her father’s face contorted from the news she had just shared with him, echoing her feelings from earlier threefold. She wondered what had him so aghast- the idea that Vader had children, the stealing of Naberrie’s daughter or that a potential ally had been lost from them? Perhaps all three? What she didn’t expect were her father’s next words to her, voice trembling as he said it.

“You need to come home. Right now.” Leia stared as if her father had just declared for the Empire. Home? She couldn’t go home now, not when her heroine’s niece was in so much danger! But after voicing those concerns her father was shaking his head. “Leia, don’t you understand? Palpatine is making a move- no doubt soon he will disband the Senate!” She sensed there was another reason, one he wasn’t saying out loud. She narrowed her eyes, wondering what it was.

“Have I done something wrong? Have I given us away?” she asked, wondering if that was what it was. Bail shook his head, face softening.

“No, sweetheart, no… you-you’ve done nothing wrong.” _But I can’t let you stay there in danger_ went unsaid, along with something else. It was as if something was prodding her, some notion that her father wasn’t being entirely truthful.

“Did you know Senator Amidala was married?” she blurted out, unable to stop herself. It had been something she had been mulling over since the party. She had wondered why he had never mentioned it. Bail’s mouth fell open, staring at her in a cross of bewilderment and horror.

“She… what? Where did you hear that?” Panic, that was the undercurrent in her father’s voice and it alarmed her.

“Senator Naberrie. Pooja. She said no one talked about her uncle’s suffering when we spoke of her.” It was hard to tell through the blue of the hologram, but it appeared that her father’s face paled, shock warring with terror. “She…” Leia’s voice wobbled, and she wondered why. Why she suddenly felt so cut off from her father, left out of something big? “She said he was an ex-slave and that they didn’t want to cause a great scandal.” Her father made an odd strangled sound, something that was very out of character for him. But then her father seemed to take control of himself once more, shaking off whatever shock he had, the mask of the King of Alderaan firmly in place.

“Leia… there’s a lot I can’t tell you right now, but you have to believe me. You aren’t _safe_ on Imperial Centre. You have to come home, _right now_ , away from the Emperor and Vader.” Her father’s face was grave, the terror clear as day in his eyes even if he had wiped it off his face. Something about that admission hit home for Leia, that her father truly was hiding something from her. Just how much was he hiding? Did he know more about this than she thought?

“So, you did know Vader had a daughter?” she couldn’t help but ask sharply, eyes narrowed. “Did the Rebellion kill her?” Bail stiffened, face blank, eyes averted. He blew out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose, not looking at her.

“I knew Vader had… children. But he doesn’t have them anymore.” That could mean anything, and she waited in silence, waited to see if her father would admit to anything else. “They’re gone Leia. Vader is the last of his cursed bloodline.” Leia blew out her own sigh of relief.

“I’m glad,” she said, shuddering slightly. “There’s no knowing how foul that creature’s offspring would be.” She missed the look of shock and horror that briefly flashed across her father’s face before he schooled it straight once again. She didn’t, however, miss the guilty flinch and gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s alright father. We have to sacrifice some things for the greater good.”

If he heard the spectre of a Jedi Knight behind her words, Bail Organa made no sign he acknowledged it. She was her mother’s daughter, he had to believe that. She looked like Padme, spoke like Padme, she _had_ to be like Padme. The alternative did not bear thinking about.

**Author's Note:**

> It makes me curious about how much I hear people compare Leia to Padme when she seems to share more of her personality with Anakin. Highly opinionated, quick to anger, ready to jump into danger at the first moment... That's not to say she doesn't share anything with her mother but she always came off to me more of her father's daughter and Luke his mother's son.
> 
> It's also always made me uncomfortable how quick Bail was to take Leia. The moment Yoda makes any mention that they have to be split up he's immediately like 'I'll take the girl.' Not, 'I'd be happy to raise one' or 'My family would be happy to help', just 'we've always wanted a baby girl'. Um... that shouldn't be the first thought on your mind when your friend has just died and your discussing potentially splitting up her children. Or at least, to me it wouldn't be. And both of the so-called 'honourable' Jedi are like 'sure, go ahead, I don't see anything wrong with this'. Add to that, the fact that Bail founds the Rebellion, it isn't outside the realm of disbelief that he's groomed Leia to hate all things Imperial- a fact that will come back to bite him in this. Because he might have just realised what the implications and consequences of doing so have had on his 'daughter'.
> 
> Don't worry- Mile is not going to be a political tool forever. We will get to A New Hope at some point soon but since this is told from Leia's perspective, you won't get their perspective until later. I will confirm, however, that they are currently using Palpatine and his blatant 'manipulation' against him. Because the Naberries are politicians and, unlike Anakin, know a political move when they see one. Anakin is just along for the ride and happy to get some small revenge against the master.
> 
> Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this!


End file.
